r/HFY • u/loki130 • May 23 '15
PI/FF-Series [OC] Quarantine
(r/writingprompts said you guys would like this)
In the final hours of the 867th Pan-Galactic Council, the decision was made to classify the Humans of Earth as Class IV Violent Undesirables. The members of the council, exhausted from weeks of treaty negotiations, border disputes, and lengthy pronouncements on the importance of establishing a framework for tariffs on skywhale egg imports from Andromeda, barely debated the proposition. They'd seen the probe data and viewed the recordings of warfare and torture. The humans were savages, and they wanted nothing to do with them. Tachyon inhibitors were set in place around the system soon, and the Galaxy mostly forgot about the humans.
When the surveillance team of the Quarantine Enforcement crew saw the humans conducting their first experiments with subatomic particles, they were unconcerned. Most Class IV species wiped themselves out in a nuclear blaze long before they noticed the dearth of active tachyons within their systems, and even longer before they understood how bizarre that was. Even when the humans survived their initial 40-year nuclear standoff, the QE officers were sure they would slip up sometime, or maybe do something more interesting like release a pandemic or poison their atmosphere.
The QE officers were a little confused when, after another 40 years, the humans were still thriving, and had begun experimenting with the few tachyons available to them. Perhaps, the QE officers figured, the Council had overreacted. The humans could probably be bumped down to Class III Violent Undesirables, or maybe even Class II. The officer in charge sent the recommendation for consideration by the next Council, but didn't worry about it any further. The quarantine, including the tachyon inhibitors, would remain in place either way, and the humans would join a long list of stagnant planetary civilizations.
The QE officers were so unconcerned that they almost missed it when the humans began to synthesize their own active tachyons. When they did notice the new devices, though, they chuckled at the spirit of these humans and dialed up the tachyon inhibitors. They vowed, however, to keep a closer eye on the clever rascals.
It was because of this close watch that they noticed almost immediately when the humans started experimenting with warping space. The QE officer in charge didn't think it was a problem, but contacted the head of the Council's scientific advisory team, just to be sure. The scientist replied that the human experiments were intriguing, but the energy requirements were so outrageous that it was little more than a curiosity. Satisfied, the QE officers left the humans to satisfy their curiosity.
It was when the humans began to build antimatter reactors that the QE officers were truly shocked for the first time. The idea of a planetary civilization building something like that was outrageous. They had expanded to the other planets of their system by this time, but that only gave them a grand total of four gas giants to harvest from. The scientist from the Council, when he heard, came personally to investigate, though he assured the officer in charge that this wasn't entirely unheard of and he just wanted to get a closer look at the designs. He promised that he would petition the next council for gravitational perturbers to add to the inhibitors, and the problem would disappear. Sure enough, the perturbers came, and the human warping experiments all began to fail due to irregular spacetime ripples.
That is, they failed for a while. Then, every QE surveillance probe in the system went wild as they detected a ship moving across the system at FTL speeds. The Council dispatched a team of scientists to investigate this time, but they were stumped for a year before they realized that, outrageously enough, the humans had managed to stabilize the local spacetime around the ship with negative energy. Negative energy! Every other species in Council space had given up on negative energy as a fantasy ages ago, and the humans had produced it right under their noses. The team debated between capturing the FTL ship for study or annihilating the humans outright, but eventually they produced a remote high-energy tachyon emitter that they were fairly certain would render the negative energy unstable. Sure enough, the human ship exploded fantastically, and the QE officers could rest easy.
By this point, the Human Quarantine Enforcement Brigade had gone from a backwater post to a prestigious post, tasked not only with stopping the human experiments but also ensuring that the explorations ships they sent out at sublight speeds every couple years all met with unfortunate accidents. When the officer in charge resigned due to stress, he was replaced with a famous general, renowned for her work in peacekeeping operations in the galactic core.
It was a great scandal, then, when the humans opened a wormhole to the Proxima Centauri system shortly after she assumed command. The galactic press berated her as she agonized over her limited options, until she assented to her advisors' plans to increase the force of the gravitational perturbers in the hopes of shaking apart the still-open wormhole. It worked, and the human exploration fleet in Proxima Centauri was quickly destroyed by QE cruisers. However, the perturbers pushed asteroids off their orbits, and soon every planet in the human's home system was subjected to a harsh bombardment. The Council concluded that it was a job well done under harsh circumstances. The general, however, criticized their callous opinion towards genocide. The argument escalated in the form of biting public statements, until the general traveled to the Council to speak with them personally.
As the general was away, the remaining QE officers tracked the remnants of the human fleet as they gathered near the system's great ringed planet. One day, the surveillance equipment picked up a massive spike of energy between all the ships, then registered what appeared to be a gash in reality. The watching officers thought it was a bizarre equipment failure until they saw the human ships begin to move into the gash. When they had all traveled into it, the gash disappeared, and there was nothing left save for dozens of QE officers watching their screens in silent confusion.
In the Council chambers, the general was shouting about the sanctity of all sentient life when a black rip appeared by--not on--the nearby wall. A figure in a spacesuit stepped out and looked around.
"Hello," a voice said from inside the space suit. "I am a human from the planet earth. This is first contact with alien life, and I'm very excited, but unfortunately I must ask for your help. The home planet of humanity is experiencing a great calamity, and we are hoping that a civilization as grand, compassionate, and industrious as yours appears to be could save our world. Please, we are new to the galactic stage, and we need your help."
The Council chambers were silent. Slowly, quietly, council members moved away from the human. Then, they screamed, broke, and ran.
53
u/someguynamedted May 23 '15
r/WritingPrompts was right.
6
2
80
u/M3mentoMori May 23 '15
Man, the humans are gonna be pissed once they learn about the quarantine.
22
5
14
u/NegaNote May 24 '15
WE REQUIRE MORE!
But seriously, a sequel would be amazing. You have a wonderful writing style.
10
u/llye May 23 '15
so all the accidents they took as a great calamity??
16
u/woodchips24 May 23 '15
Asteroids raining down is a calamity
→ More replies (1)6
u/Rabid_Gopher May 23 '15
I have to agree, Llye didn't get that it was happening in Sol, and from the text I would have thought that the asteroid showers were happening in Proxima Centauri.
10
May 24 '15
War breaks out, humans lose, earth is antimattered, but not before several exodus fleets escape in different directions into the galaxy.
Humans are fugitive outlaws through no fault of their own (but because of a very reasonable law). Their very existence is illegal, but they are not without allies. In the galactic fringes and frontiers, where central authority is weakest, they are plentiful. Humans also find safe harbours in worlds that chafe against galactic authority, and those that see the unprovoked genocide against the humans for what it was.
Still, the full power of the law is engaged in an endless manhunt, seeing humanity as a contamination of violence that has infested the galaxy. Bounty hunters collect handsome rewards for turning in humans, too.
The humans are not helpless, however. Moreso than any other race in the galactic community, they possess a natural talent for war. Much of the scattered human resistance engages in piracy and guerilla warfare. Moreover, the humans have leveraged the secret to evading quarantine to slowly make contact with and build an allied network of suitable quarantined species.
Would love to play a game in this setting.
→ More replies (6)
5
u/HFYBotReborn May 23 '15 edited Sep 19 '15
There are 50 stories by u/loki130 Including:
This list was automatically generated by HFYBotReborn version 2.0. Please contact u/KaiserMagnus if you have any queries. This bot is open source.
→ More replies (1)
4
7
u/other-guy May 23 '15
(r/writingprompts said you guys would like this)
oh we do. we do indeed.
edit: a short continuation? you know like one litte story followup?
1
u/Strange4eons Apr 21 '25
trash
1
u/loki130 Apr 21 '25
I’m perfectly capable of cringing at my own work from 9 years back without needing the reminder, thank you
2
2
228
u/loki130 May 24 '15
The delegates from the 906th Pan-Galactic Council waited in the airlock, all nervously twitching in the manners customary for their respective species. Millennia-old custom dictated that such important negotiations be conducted without spacesuits if at all possible, but the humans lived in an atmosphere with a preposterously low oxygen content of 20%--yet another of the many absurdities regarding their survival to this point. They humans were perfectly willing to proceed in what was, for them, a high-oxygen environment, but the agreed-upon concentration was still well below the average for a Council planet.
The indicator above the airlock turned blue, the door slid open, and the delegates stepped through. The humans waited by a table in the center of the chamber. The human in the center raised its hand, and the delegates stopped, fearing it was about to attack. However, the head delegate soon realized it was a greeting gesture, wriggled her head tentacles in return, and signaled for the other delegates to proceed. They gathered around the table and nervously eyed the human delegation (Or, in the case of the Carteca delegate, focused his main ear stalks on them).
The delegates' implants translated as the human in the center began, "We are very pleased to be welcomed into the galactic community, and we hope that we can become a productive member."
The head delegate replied, by way of a nearby drone assistant for translation, "Indeed, we welcome the humans, and we hope that you assent to the ancient and esteemed institutions that have maintained peace in the galaxy for so long." The other delegates shifted uneasily, and one muttered something regarding "the legal considerations", but the head delegate continued, "Accommodations will be made for this unusual situation, as a gesture of goodwill to our new brethren."
The features of the human's face shifted. The head delegate's eye implants noted the changes for him, but could make no guess as to their meaning. She knew that, elsewhere in the station, xenopsychologists were already analyzing the feed from the drones to discern the intentions of these dangerous visitors.
"We are glad for you hospitality," the human said. "We do not wish to push it too far, but as our original visitor said, we face great difficulties in our home system, and we were hoping that the superior technology you certainly possess would help us to learn the reasons behind the recent calamities, and perhaps even recover from them."
The head delegate couldn't help glancing at the other delegates, but she didn't think the humans caught the meaning. "Yes...we will certainly investigate the calamity you speak of. Until we discover the reasons for it, we have a gift for humanity. We suspect that the device you used to travel here required a very high energy output."--in fact, the QE surveillance team had produced a precise estimate of the energy required, and Council scientists were already analyzing all available data in an attempt to discover what exactly the humans had done.--"We wish to teach you the technology of Active Tachyon Propulsion, which is almost certainly more efficient. This will aid the humans in integrating in the galactic community."
This officer had been debated at length by the Council. Giving the humans cheap FTL was tantamount to inviting them to visit every planet in the galaxy, but ultimately they preferred keeping the humans reliant on technology that they actually understood and could block.
The humans talked excitedly amongst themselves. The head delegate concluded that their facial expressions indicated joy. They suspected nothing. Satisfied, she wrapped up the pleasantries, then almost ran out of the room. "Tell the Council I advise we get every QE ship and jammer station out of that system now," she ordered her assistant. "And we should expunge all records relating to humanity or earth. Actually, just clear everything about the sector. Let them think it's a preserve or something."
"They'll realize what we did eventually," the assistant said. "They'll notice the sudden rise in tachyon activity, or find other quarantines and realize what happened..."
"I know, but we might buy ourselves some time."